well prepared for this challenge. Our teachers had given us lots of help while we were in school.”

Norlington teacher Mary Mcportland, who works with the school’s brightest pupils, said: “We are extremely proud of our pupils.

“What makes it all the more impressive is that the majority of the pupils they competed against were a year older.

“They also showed great lead-ership skills by taking the time to prepare in their own time during the Easter holidays.”

The Count on Us Secondary Challenge for Year 8 and 9 pupils is a joint project from the Jack Petchey Foundation and the Mayor’s Fund for London.

NORLINGTON SCHOOLnSummer newsletter nWisdom is strength

Pupils you can really count on

Sum-thing special: Adam, Hasheer, Rafsan, Muhammad and Zakariyya

THE school is celebrating after being crowned East London’s finest and the fourth best in the capital at a prestigious maths competition.

A five-strong team from Norlington took first place in the East London heat of the Jack Petchey Count on Us Secondary Challenge for pupils aged 12 and 13 held at City Hall.

The school emerged victori-ous after excelling in a series of maths puzzle rounds.

The Norlington pupils then placed a highly respectable fourth during the London wide regional final held in June.

Pupils who took part were, Adam Sukky, 12, Hasheer Peeroo, 12, Rafsan Rahman, 12, Muhammad Ta-Seen, 12, and Zakariyya Jameal, 12.

Hasheer said: “The challenge brought the team together and improved our communication skills which we will use further on in life.”

Zakariyya said: “It was a great experience and has greatly im-proved my maths skills.”

Rafsan said: “We had a lot of fun and I am looking forward to doing it again next year.”

Adam said: “We were very

YEAR 8 Adam Sukky has qualified for the UK Maths Olympics after scoring top marks in a competition.

The Norlington brainbox will join the 1,000 best young mathematicians in the coun-try for the British Mathe-matical Olympiad in April next year.

Adam was invited to the prestigious competition after an outstanding performance in the Junior Mathematical Challenge (JMC).

Norlington entered 60 pupils into the JMC, which took place in June.

‘A credit to school’OUR pupils won rave reviews after helping to promote cricket on a tour of Spanish schools.

Students at Norlington represent-ed Essex Cricket club during a four day visit in March.

They coached pupils, held ques-tion and answer seminars and umpired matches at five schools in the Alicante and Murcia regions.

The Year 8 and 9 pupils, picked for their leadership qualities and cricketing abilities, took part in the ECB Cricket Activators coaching course in preparation of the trip.

Neil Brook, junior director of Cricket Spain, said: “On behalf of Cricket Espana I would just like to say a big thank you to the students and teaching staff at Norlington.

“These young leaders are surely destined for great success. I wish them well for the future.”

Head of PE at El Limonar School, Michael Pimblett, described the pupils as a credit to their school.

He added: “The sessions were well planned and delivered, com-bining coaching drills with great leadership qualities and sense of humour.

“Cricket is now booming in our school.

Player Sumeet Singh Nandra, 13, said: “I feel very honoured and proud to have represented the school and Essex.

“A lot of what we were taught before this tour was how to devel-op our leadership skills.

“It is something that is very important at the school.

Dawood Noaman, 14, said: “There is not a lot of cricket played in Spain, so it was a great privi-lege to go there and try to make the game more popular.

“It is my hope that this visit will lay the foundation for the game to

develop in Spain and to share our passion for the game with young people over there.”

Assistant headteacher Paul Hobbs said: “To travel to an unfa-miliar country and deliver leader-ship sessions in schools, some of which were Spanish speaking, is a real accomplishment.

“The boys represent what we are striving to achieve at Norlington - true gentleman with leadership skills.

“We have made many new friends and hope to work more closely with Cricket Espana in the future.

Great ambassadors: Our young cricketers

LOOKING back on this year confirms that Norlington never stands still.

We are committed to offering all our students the best possible learning experience.

School highlights include the opening of the new sixth form, further recognition from the DFE for achieving in the top 100 schools again and signif-icant improvements to the building and resources for students.

The school is celebrating after being crowned East London’s finest and the fourth best in the capital at a prestig-ious maths competition with Year 8 student, Adam Sukky, qualifying for the UK maths Olympics after scoring top marks in a competition.

Ibadullah Lughmani, again from Year

8, has smashed a 30-year borough jave-lin record at the Waltham Forest Ath-letics championships and our boys won rave reviews after helping to promote cricket on a tour of Spanish schools.

Further, I am very pleased to confirm that with the help of the borough Norlington School has managed to purchase a further half-acre next to the school.

This will allow the school to both provide improved resources for students and expand in size.

Sadly as the land has tenants the school will not have access or be able to build on it for a few years.

I would also like to thank all parents who participated in the recent Academy consultation, the outcome of which can

be found on the school website.As always I take this moment to

thank my staff for their hard work and wish those leaving all the best in the future.

This includes Ms Hyatt and Ms Darr, who have served the students of Norlington for a combined period of 42 years and retire at the end of the year.

Finally I would like to thank all staff for their hard work, parents for their continuing support and most of all our boys for making Norlington such a great school.

I wish everybody a safe and enjoya-ble summer.

Headteacher John Hernandez

So many reasons for celebration

OUR Year 8 students enjoyed a field trip to Greenwich Heritage Centre in June.

As part of the World War Two study day the Year 8s also visited the Royal Artillery Museum.

Pupil Adam Blake said: “The trip to the Royal Artillery Museum was educational and pleasurable.

“The tour guide who led us around was willing to answer any questions

“There was also an actress who talked in character about the blitz and WW2, which was very interesting.”

Pupil Larry Dagadu said: “My experience on our trip was brilliant because we learned more about what we were studying in lessons.

“We went to the Royal Ar-tillery Museum and we got to know more about weapons used in wars.”

A trip back in time

Museum trip: Pupils learned about the history of the Gunners

NORLINGTON students were invited to compete for the borough at the Table Tennis Champi-onships at the London Youth Games.

The boys went up against teams from across the capital at the event held at the Redbridge Leisure Centre in June.

Hasheer Peeroo, Arslan

Naveed and Ramesh Sar-fraz scored a victory over Barnet, but lost to Harin-gay and Enfield, two of the top ranked teams in the country.

OUR Year 7 cricket team will play Chingford School in the borough final.

The hotly-anticipated match will see the two unbeaten schools go head -to-head for the title later in the summer.

Special mention goes to Jamal who scored an incredible 82 not out during one contest.

Farhaan, Nuhan and Rayhaan have also pro-duced match winning performances.

Boys represent borough

Table tennis: Hasheer Peeroo, Arslan Naveed and Ramesh Sarfraz

Farewell to primary...The school ran a transition day for primary school pupils join-ing us next September.

More than 100 of our new starters got an introduction to life at the school.

We asked six pupils of them what they were looking forward to about coming to Norlington.

All eyes on final

Shayaan, 11, from Barclay Primary School, said: “I am looking forward to all the new subjects I am going to study and making new friends.”

Xiao, 11, from Willowbrook Primary, said: “Norlington has very good results in exams and that’s why I wanted to come here.”

Muhammad, from Downsell Primary, said: “My brother comes here and he has done really well with his studies. I hope to do as well as him.”

Burham, 11, from Newport Pri-mary, said: “I wanted to come to Norlington because they are really good at sport, particularly cricket which is my favourite.”

Ibrahim, 10, from South Grove Primary, said: “The school is really near to where I live, plus I really like the teachers. They are really nice.”

Karim, 10, from Gwyn Jones Primary, said: “The form tutors are really nice here and so I am glad I will be coming to the school in September.”

Students officiate at cricket contestOUR leaders were described as a “credit to the school” after helping to run a quick cricket tournament for local primary schools.

The year 8 pupils officiated at both the boys’ and girls’ competi-tion for 18 schools in May

The 12 students who took part had recently completed an activa-tors course with the Essex Cricket Association.

PE teacher Mr Bygott said: “The students gained valuable lead-ership experience working with

younger students from the local schools.”

He added: “Both days were a massive success.”

SIXTH-form student ABDUSHSHAKOOR SULEMAN discuss the step from GCSEs to A-levels

“The myth about the gruelling nature of A-levels is indeed true – as my peers and I found out quite abruptly.

A-levels. Hard. Strenuous. Momentous.

These were the just some of the labels hovering around when colleges and sixth forms were the talk of school while preparing for my GCSE examinations.

I among millions of other stu-dents around the world am study-ing the notorious A-levels.

In hindsight, the step up from GCSE to A-level is a leap of faith in the darkness, but plenty of light is shed for those who seek it.

Working hard and smart for A-levels

This is the most astonishing dif-ference between GCSE and A-lev-el – hard work and dedication.

It separates those who want to learn and those who merely come to school out of obligation.

GCSE is a breadth study. A-level is a depth study.

A studious mind-set combined

with the desire to learn something everyday is an asset at A-level.

However, the sheer depth and complexity introduces a need to be independent and organised.

A-levels haves forced me com-pletely outside my comfort zone, taking me into unknown territories and urging me to use my initiative.

Subject classes are more fre-quent, the content is more chal-lenging and much greater inde-pendent study is required.

A-levels aren’t just about work-ing hard – they’re about working smart too.

At GCSE and even more impor-tantly at A-level – tailoring your work towards the actual exams and specifically practising exam technique is my single best piece of advice.

Good luck!

THE school has been chosen to pilot a scheme aimed at getting youngsters interested in tennis.

Norlington was among just 21 nationally to be selected as part of the School of Tennis programme.

Our teachers and pupils took part in a training day at Loughborough University last week as part of the programme.

The school, chosen for its work in encouraging leadership skills among pupils, has also had a Rebo tennis wall installed.

Assistant headteacher Paul Hobbs said: “Norlington are

delighted to be chosen as one of only 21 schools in the country to be a ‘School of Tennis’.

“It matches the aspirations we have for our students. The scheme will enable us to broaden our cur-riculum, create more enrichment opportunities and develop more leaders - all of which are at the core of Norlington’s aims.’

Charity Tennis Foundation said they want to encourage secondary school pupils to take up the sport by making it more relevant and engaging for teens.

They want to reverse the dip

in participation of mid-teens by giving each school up to £3,000 in funding and support.

Paul Williams, schools’ tennis manager at the Tennis Foundation said: “We’re looking forward to supporting Norlington School so they can make tennis more appeal-ing to their particular students and subsequently enjoy all the physical and social benefits tennis brings.”

For more information on the programme, or any of the Ten-nis Foundation’s work in Educa-tion please email: schools@tennis foundation.or.uk.

Tempting teens to take up tennis

On court: Pupils took part in a training day at Loughborough University

OUR brainy maths students were tasked with carrying out a research assignment at A-level grade.

Brilliant Club students cov-

ered advanced concepts such as differential calculus during the term-long project.

Students who took part included

Awaise Zahir, Bilal Khokar, Cheng Wang, Tayyab Khaliq, Riaz Hus-sain, Aadil Bhaiyyat, Moonis Altaf and Umar Ali.

Students add to their maths knowledge

THE school ran a computer science com-petition to find the best young programmers in Waltham Forest.

Norlington pupils finished as runners-up, while nearby George Mitchell were the overall winners.

Teams from six schools took part.

Competitors used computing tools such as python programming

to solve a ‘real world problem’.

The competition took place at the school in July.

It came after Norling-ton was chosen as the Lead School for a Com-puting Hub in Waltham Forest.

Computer science teachers from across the borough will come to the school for training and to discuss ideas.

Students all at sea

NORLINGTON Twitter: @NorlingtonSch Facebook: @NorlingtonSchoolForBoys

NORLINGTON SIXTH-FORM Twitter: @Norlington6form Facebook: @NorlingtonSixthForm

Programmers pick up prizes

YEAR 7 pupils got a taste of life at sea - without leav-ing port - during a visit to the ex-Royal navy ship

HMS Belfast. Students toured the

world famous vessel in April.

Mr Skamiotis has been named Master Teacher in the Computing at School (CAS) Network of Excellence.

CAS is a joint project between Queen Mary University London, the Department of Educa-

tion and Professional Studies at King’s College London.

The school is running a computer club on Tues-day afternoons starting at 3.30pm.

For more information speak to Mr Rashid.

WALTHAM Forest Council are running a number of fun and edu-cational course for pupils throughout the summer.

There is something for every with activities

covering sport, music, performance and art, among many others.

For more information visit the website at www.walthamforest.gov.uk/summer.

YEAR 8 pupil Ibadul-lah Lughmani has smashed the borough javelin record at the Waltham Forest Athlet-ics championships.

Ibadullah threw a remarkable 43.74m, 5m further than the previous record, which had stood since 1985.

Other gold medalists on the day included Year 9’s Ekrash Nasir in

the high jump and Year 10’s David Asewale for the discus.

Oluwakayode Lau-rence won a silver med-al, while Mohammed Feraz, Adam Errafik, Nile Odejimi-Riley, Ibadullah Lughma-ni, Ali Mohammadi, Aboulaye Ly Athie, Terel Steerling and Kamal O’Mard all won bronze.

PUPILS attended the the 100th anniversary of World War I hero Jack Cornwall.

Local boy Jack went to school in Leyton and grew up in nearby Manor Park.

Many of the Norlington students who went along to pay their respects were the same age as Jack

when he joined the Navy in 1915 aged just 15.

Gunner Jack became the youngest ever Vic-toria Cross recipient following his death onboard the HMS Ches-ter in 1916.

The centenary celebra-tion was held at Corona-tion Gardens in Leyton in May.

Paying respects to ‘hero’

Navy man: Students at the memorial to Jack Cornwall

Sign up for some summertime fun

Javelin champ